I've never been able to watch the draft on TV and never felt like I've lost out at all. Surely it is the least visually interesting MLS event imaginable and the analysis on bigsoccer is better than whatever ESPN/FSC can throw up.

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Fair enough. After all, pretty much the only thing I remember from the last Superdraft was Lalas being very critical of the Deleon pick. Good call, Lalas!

It'd be nice if they would release some MLS Live info around draft time as well. I don't see a reason why they wouldn't have the draft available for live streaming on their own app? (Perhaps they will and I don't understand fully how it will all work).

so basically there is a 33% chance to get a ****/*** star draft pick in the first two rounds and the same 33% chance you'll get a **/* star player or a 33% chance you'll get a bust (understanding that some of the 2012 draft picks that fall into the "x" rating might contribute in future seasons, the few who are still on rosters).

of the 36 **** & *** star draft picks from 2010-2012 by position

GK: 2 (6%)
D: 15 (42%)
M: 10 (28%)
F: 9 (25%)

i am going to try and input more drafts, say back to 2007, into my data set and see what else i can come up with.

DCU has done a great job drafting in the first two rounds ... 3 picks averaging nearly 2,400 hundred minutes per season (Korb, Kitchen, DeLeon).

What do you use to do that, and how is the quality. My TV has a usb input that I've never used, wonder if that can be used for it? Does it get pixelated going from 15" to 50"?

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The usb input on your TV is almost certainly for service/repair and will not carry a video signal.

Assuming you have a PC of some sort, all you need is a VGA cord. There should be a port for that on your TV.

If you have a fancy new laptop, it might have a HDMI output out it. If you have a Mac, you will need the adapter that goes from whatever they call their video output port to a vga cable. This will cost you $15 at walmart or $10 online.

I have a bunch of draft data I compiled last year. Let me see if I can get it posted cleanly in the next couple of posts. Note that all the data in the numerous posts below is compiled from 2000 through 2011. It does not include 2012 data.

Please excuse the look of the data as the charts from my word document did not copy over well but you should still be able to follow along.
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Data Set Rules

The following rules were used to help determine which players would be a part of the data group

Only players who chose to sign with MLS will be considered in the study.

If a player was drafted and then cut during preseason, he will be part of the data group. If said player is subsequently picked up during the season by another team, the stats will reflect the original team who drafted him.

If a player was drafted but then did not sign with the league and chose to play outside of MLS, he will not be part of the data group.

If a player was forced to retire for non-soccer reasons (for example Zachary Herold), he will not be a part of the data group.

If a player was injured before they could play a game in the first season (for example Chris Gbandi), he will not be part of the data group.

If a player was previously in MLS and then was drafted in a subsequent season (this happened twice in 2001 with Andrew Gregor and Justin Evans)), they will not be a part of the data group.

If a player was drafted but could not obtain a work permit (as happened to a couple of the Joe Public players drafted in the early 2000’s), he will not be a part of the data group.

By following the rules listed above, a certain number of draftees were removed from the data set. The table below displays the total number of players in the study.

The next three tables deal specifically with player appearance information. These tables display the % of games that the player appeared in his first season in the league. % is used to balance the fact that seasons in the study had a varying amount of total games per season. The tables show all combinations of position and experience level. The information is summed for all drafts from 2000 through 2011.

The next three tables deal specifically with player game minutes information. These tables display the % of total minutes that the player appeared in his first season in the league. % is used to balance the fact that seasons in the study had a varying amount of total minutes per season. These tables give more granularity into how much the player really played in their appearances. The tables show all combinations of position and experience level. The information is summed for all drafts from 2000 through 2011.

In performing the study, it became evident that certain colleges were used more often than others to draw players from. The table below shows the names of all colleges and universities where 10 or more players were drafted from in the study.

College/UniversityNumber of players in study
University of Maryland
19
Wake Forest University
16
UCLA
15
UNC
13
Indiana University
11
University of Akron
10

Some colleges appear in bunches with in a couple of drafts. This is explained due to MLS drafters picking a lot of players from specific championship level teams, a good example of which was Akron.

Senior Defender is by far the most popular position experience level to draft

Forwards held the edge in highest % of appearances but defenders had the highest level of minutes by a good margin. This is likely explained by the fact that many rookie forwards are sent in as late game subs where as defenders tend to start and stay on the majority of the game.

General experience level did not lean towards the more experienced player in either appearances or minutes. In fact there appears to be diminishing returns the older a player gets after his freshman year. Sophomores as a group dominated both appearance and minutes and were followed by juniors. Of the three, seniors had the least impact on appearances and minutes. Some of this can be explained by the fact that better players are coming out of college earlier.

I'm not saying your wrong. But I'd love to see the numbers behind this?

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He's not wrong. In Canada the NHL draft coverage is similar to NFL draft coverage in the US. The networks pay big rights fees to show it live. It's pure overkill.

It also speaks to an oversight many MLS fans make when they try and make claims about the league overtaking hockey - the Canada factor. Hockey is a billion dollar industry up here and that money drives the sport to levels MLS can only dream about.

That said, I doubt the NHL draft is watched by too many more Americans than the MLS draft is. I think it airs on the NHL Network in the US and a similar speciality channel would likely make sense for the MLS draft if such a channel were to exist.